Seeding a Viable Economic Alternative. Pt 3: Placing Mother Nature First

Arguably, for all our grand talk and technology, the fine-grained, concrete reality of the immediate natural world around us largely continues to escape our attention. Our embeddedness in Mother Nature’s web of interdependence, the role of diversity in her stability and beauty, and our health and wellbeing, the impact of our careless actions upon her, and  just do not seem readily available to the conscious mind. If it didn’t, economic growth, fossil fuel energy, monoculture, GMOs, unsustainable resource usage and littering would simply be out of the question. Environment is Humanity’s most poignant blind spot. But why?

The problem could be one of language? Maybe the modern mind, split along the fault lines of mind>matter, subject>object, cause>effect, gene/agent>environment, can no longer perceive raw, reciprocal Nature through our tangled digital hierarchies of symbolic representation and our paradigms of progress, competition and individualism?

Perchance, a result of our physical disconnection? Where does Nature feature in our modern culture of long work hours, retail therapy, technological addiction and children indoor-bred by fearful parents? It seems self-evident that we can neither consider nor care for something we don’t know.

However, whilst these are undoubted contributors, it is increasingly Arkadian’s suspicion that the they may both share a deeper underpinning.

Is is possible that neither we, nor any other being on the planet, are actually evolutionarily equipped to monitor environment effectively? That we are all are attuned to particular patterns and relationships salient to the perpetuation of our species, but not to their backdrop? Quite literally: are we missing the Wood for the trees?

Perhaps, before now we have never needed to he directly aware of our systemic and restorative interrelationship with Nature, because She’s always taken care of herself and, indeed, of any species transgressing her golden principles: integrity, redundancy, variability, diversity and cooperation.

Yet a moment’s reflection is all it takes to recognise that restoring Nature according to these principles within the context of a burgeoning population, the neo-liberal economic paradigm, and an increasingly chaotic climate is a monumental task, way beyond the scope of any Government, organisation, academic theory, or technological fix.

In short, unless we each take individual responsibility for biodiversity restoration in our day-to-day thoughts and actions, then it cannot and will not happen. Furthermore, the above would imply this may require some training. If we are not naturally aware of our Community-of-Interdependence., then the survival of our species depends on making compulsory those activities that promote mindfulness.

The most important of these was highlighted by the Futures Conference session: ongoing, compassionate transaction with Nature, and reflection. Spending quality time with Her, working, nurturing, learning in partnership is clearly fundamental to a meaningful relationship. This is particularly so our children, as it is they who will face the greatest need for empathy and understanding.

Also touched upon were activities that might encourage greater awareness of Nature’s abundance, Her restorative benefits, how deeper connections cause Her destruction to tug at our guts and morals, and other ethereal interrelationships we only experience indirectly.

In this light, shamanism, totemism, ritual calendars, nature meditation, and the use of hallucinogenic plants might be viewed not as primitive superstition, but as rational technologies for promoting holistic consciousness of, and respect for, ‘that’ upon which our survival depends. With this in mind, it would seem well worth revisiting, re-exploring and relearning such techniques, as an analogic, experiential counterbalance to our scientific investigations.

The wise fox sums the relationship up well in Sainte Expury’s Little Prince.

“Here is my secret,” the fox said. “It’s quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes. It’s the time you spend on your rose that makes your rose so important. People have forgotten this truth. But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for that with which you create ties with. The only things you learn are the things you create ties with. You’re responsible for your rose…”

“I’m responsible for my rose…”, the little prince repeated, in order to remember. 

Indeed, the fox’s words remind us of a further immutable, and connected, Truth that emerged during the session. As with Ecosystems, ‘Community’ is not a ‘thing’, but a process: a tapestry of positive social interactions, learnings, endeavours and interdependencies. Without the Structure, Energy and, particularly, Time to for this continuous, dynamic interweaving of individual, collective and natural world to occur, any talk of a ‘Big Society’ is as empty and nonsensical, as saying Time with the Nature will improve. Moreover, we might also infer from the session outcomes, that without ‘Community-as-Process’ we have a nonviable social system, fragile and ill-equipped to deal with the environmental uncertainties and instabilities that lie ahead.